Foronda Jesús, Berville Laurence, Rodríguez Estefania, Peña Aránzazu, Perdereau Elfie, Montoro Mar, Lucas Christophe, Ruano Francisca
Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training (IFAPA) La Mojonera, Almería, Spain.
Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Granada, 18071, Spain.
J Chem Ecol. 2025 May 9;51(3):52. doi: 10.1007/s10886-025-01562-w.
Aphid-tending ants form mutualistic associations with aphids. During their interactions, aphids and ants use both tactile stimuli and chemical cues to communicate. Recent studies suggest that ants modify the cuticular hydrocarbons of mutualistic aphids they attend, but it is unclear which compounds are implicated in recognition. Thus, we investigated the chemical basis for the discrimination between attended and unattended aphids, Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae), by the ant Tapinoma ibericum (Santschi, 1925) including cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs and non-CHCs) compounds in the analysis. Chemical profiles of 14 colonies of A. gossypii attended by ants for three days were significantly different from those of unattended aphids. These results show that contact with T. ibericum rapidly induces modification of the cuticular profiles of the aphids on which they feed. Moreover, the compounds of unattended aphid A. gossypii also change over time but differ from those of attended aphids. The main compound of the ant cuticle (3,15-di-MeC27), which is highly abundant in attended aphids, was identified as a possible recognition marker, but without forgetting other identified compounds that may also play a predominant role in the ant-aphid mutualistic interactions. These promising compounds represent opportunities for pest control strategies using chemical manipulations.
照顾蚜虫的蚂蚁与蚜虫形成互利共生关系。在它们的互动过程中，蚜虫和蚂蚁通过触觉刺激和化学信号进行交流。最近的研究表明，蚂蚁会改变它们所照顾的互利共生蚜虫的表皮碳氢化合物，但尚不清楚哪些化合物参与了识别过程。因此，我们研究了伊比利亚铺道蚁（Tapinoma ibericum，Santschi，1925）区分有蚂蚁照顾和无蚂蚁照顾的棉蚜（Aphis gossypii Glover，半翅目：蚜科）的化学基础，分析中包括表皮碳氢化合物（CHCs和非CHCs）化合物。由蚂蚁照顾三天的14个棉蚜群体的化学特征与未被照顾的蚜虫有显著差异。这些结果表明，与伊比利亚铺道蚁接触会迅速诱导它们所取食的蚜虫表皮特征发生改变。此外，未被照顾的棉蚜的化合物也会随时间变化，但与有蚂蚁照顾的蚜虫不同。蚂蚁表皮的主要化合物（3,15-二甲基C27）在有蚂蚁照顾的蚜虫中含量很高，被确定为一种可能的识别标记，但也不能忽视其他已鉴定出的化合物，它们可能在蚂蚁与蚜虫的互利共生互动中也起主要作用。这些有前景的化合物为利用化学操纵的害虫控制策略提供了机会。
